Three good things - Part III

I had a great day today because three good things happened. I'll cover them in chronological order. This is the third one.

The US election result came in. Woo! Hoo!

I'm excited that Obama won. I'm a lefty through and through so the idea that the US may start veering that way really pleases me.

But even if he hadn't won, I'd still be happy, because there were long queues to vote all across America. People actually cared about who won! This is a good thing. I think that compulsory voting (like Australia has) is the way to go. Even if it doesn't force people to think about politics and the future, what it does achieve is to modulate the influence of the lunatic fringe(s) who seem to have a disproportionately large influence on US politics with their single-issue lobby groups. It's sad to see election turnouts down in the 40% range. Especially when the people who don't vote tend to be the disenfranchised people who most need the government's help.

But Obama did win. Isn't it great that Barbra Streisand won't have to move to Canada now?